Camera views, some questions and my understanding

[Uriah]

Camera Free: Don't know what this does

Camera Track: Don't know what this does

Camera Operator: enemy Don't know what this does

Camera Operator: friendly Don't know what this does

Camera: head-unlink cockpit Don't know what this does but seems oddly to do much as Player Cockpit

 

Here are some of my set ups (I have Track-IR)

CAMERA or Point of View controls

 

Player Cockpit: eyes are front and center, HAT SWITCH 00

External Free Camera at Player Plane: HAT SWITCH 90

Combat Camera: HAT SWITCH 180

Flyby: yeah. HAT SWITCH 270

 

 

 

Note: 'Combat Camera' point of view is eyes about 50 feet from behind plane and looking to the plane nose. Very helpful view for take off and landing.

 

Combat Camera: head-unlinked cockpit . Click your button for this and move your mouse to turn your pilot's eyes to look behind the pilot. Now if you are not using your mouse every time you hit that button you get that view.

 

On each side of my hat switch I have two buttons.

Camera Padlock Dangerous Air Units: Left button

External Free Camera at Enemy Air Unites: Right button

 

Camera Local rotation: Once you go to an outside view, like 'External Free Camera at Player Plane'

and then move your view around using other keys or your mouse then if you hit these 'local' keys it rotates where the camera man looks. 'He' stays in his fixed position but looks around from there. If you move your plane the camera man does not stay at that fix positon.

Camera Local rotation up/down = np 8/2 np means Num Pad.

Camera Local rotation left/right = np 4/6

 

 

Rotate Camera up/down = Mouse Wheel

Rotate Camera left/right = Mouse X

Move Free Camera forward/backward = Mouse Y

Move Free Camera left/right = na na means not assigned

 

Camera Free: np3

Camera Track: np1

 

TERMS

'free' - seems to mean you can move away from the cockpit point of view

'ext' seems to mean a point of view away from the cockpit
so 'ext free my plane' seems to be a point of view away from the cockpit looking toward the cockpit.

 

First, if you change a view from a padlock you loose that padlock.

 

External views: As far as I can tell they either stay looking at the players plane or from the pilots point of view at other objects like air units or ground units. I can't find a way of just roaming around. I thought CAMERA FREE might do that, but if so I am not getting that result.

 

Camera Padlock: Dangerous Air Units (DA) and Camera Padlock: Enemy Air Units (PEA)

are very similar but here are the differences.

 

DA picks the closest enemy air plane to you. I don't think there is a way to stick to one plane you have chosen once you have pressed another button like for Player Cockpit. Once you've done that there is no 'return to looking at the plane you padlocked.

 

PEA will rotate from plane to plane each time you pick it.

 

External free camera at player plane (E@PP)

In External free camera at player plane (E@PP) you will get an external view of your plane from maybe a 100 feet away. The angle often is from about at 100 degrees on the horizontal.

 

Camera:COMBAT camera: view is a view from behind your plane as if you were in another plane following your own plane. I call it the roller coaster view because it is always behind your plane and follows along. It is not what I call 'camera on a stick' or 'plane on a stick'. That kind of view is as if the camera where attached to a long stick from the back end of your plane.

 

Using the view combinations of COCKPIT/E@PP/COMBAT with PADLOCKs DA or PEA

Now the fun thing is using these options with the internal view of COCKPIT or either of the two external views of E@PP or COMBAT with DA or PEA. Any of the mentioned views will behave the same way in the following scenario. If you pick either of these three views and then pick DA or PEA your in-game eyes will follow the padlocked plane. If you have picked E@PP then the view will be a nice angle looking at your plane and the padlocked plane. I say nice because your own plane does not block your line of sight toward the enemy plane you have padlocked onto. Lock On: Modern Air Combat and EAW had a padlock that would return to your last padlocked target when you looked away, instead of making you cycle through all the other targets each time you glanced away to look at your instruments.

 

What I typically do is choose COCKPIT view at first and the padlock DA. When I need an outside view to get my bearings I will choose view COMBAT and then padlock DA. If I want to get a feel of where all the enemy are I will pick PEA.

 

These are just my set ups and thoughts.  The thoughts likely have mis-understandings.